Subj : Re: UPS Replacement - Upd To : Barry Martin From : Ky Moffet Date : Thu Feb 24 2022 16:16:00 BARRY MARTIN wrote: > Hi Ky! > > > As for the driver, I think the drivers are now part of the kernel, or > > possibly part of the stuff when see "installing previously not > > installed". Plus that reference is quite a few years old. > KM> Ah, probably are by now. > > I kind of thought one of the advantages of *NIX over Windows was the > 'main part' was separate/independent of everything else. The other > parts were essentially optional. (Overly simplified, but what do you > want on a half-mug of cofee so far? ) Linux drivers are in the kernel because back in the original days, linux performance was so utterly glacial that drivers had to integrated into to the kernel to get it to boot within your lifetime. It was a bad design decision then, and it's not any better now, but we're kinda stuck with it. Learning to optimize performance and a distro-agnostic driver API layer would have been much more sensible, and linux wouldn't have had that long period where whether it would work with your perfectly standard hardware was a bad-odds crapshoot (and it's still not 100%; yonder is my Epson scanner, NOT SUPPORTED even tho it's been their most popular small business model for the past ten years). Vendor doesn't provide a religiously-blessed (open source) driver for their hardware? You're SOL. Maintainer decides to remove a driver? You're SOL. (I remember when VESA 1.2 support was removed, and half the vidcards still being sold no longer worked.) Or you deal with problems like the current tangle of nVidia drivers, and hope the Nouveau driver works if one of the others doesn't. We don't see much on the user end now because enough have been added that most hardware works OOTB, and we no longer have to hand-configure drivers (usually), but it's a foundational problem in linux. And it's not been that long go that if you moved a linux install HD to another PC, or swapped out the video card, that killed it dead and unresurrectable due to driver conflicts (and the steaming pile of shims that is the X11 video server. Wayland is better-designed, but still a bugfest.) Now I can move some of 'em and they'll reconfigure drivers to the new hardware, but it's not universal. > > Installed the new UPS last Thursday morning; haven't done anything with > > the monitoring and communications with either UPS yet, other than plug > > cables into the back panels. > KM> There's my problem... I never plug that USB cable into the PC. > KM> (Is that port surge-protected??????) I'm so rarely ... never? not > KM> home to deal with power out, that I don't really care about > KM> autoshutdown. > > I haven't done a thing with auto-shutdown (yet); again now usually home, > if not still shouldn't have to be concerned as the generator is supposed > to kick in (since installed no power outages; barely any blinks!). What sort of generator do you have? I'd like to have one that would run off natural gas since that's unlikely to fail, but $$$$. Need to replace woodstove first. (Dunno why but it won't draw at all, and me with 20 years heating with wood/coal ain't the problem. Might be the flue is too big for the stove.) Would like to have one that does both pellets and chunks. Especially having noted that right now Walmart has pellets half price by the pallet. > Mainly the software was installed to be able to check on the battery. > And in the case of the defective UPS handy way to grab the information. Yeah, that has utility. They get tired and show no sign until woah, why did the power go out and 30 seconds later the UPS beeped and died? > KM> However, I have thereby acquired a good collection of USB cables, > KM> useful for printers and such... > > Even the special ones with the Ethernet-type connectors on one end?! That square connector? Most printers use that. I've never seen one with an ethernet-type plug! > KM> Just pick a power cord and random and hope it's attached to > KM> something! > > I have been trying to label things like power cords and wall warts as to > what they go to. Sometimes the labels fall off. Um, lost cause... I once counted the tangle behind Argo and Dink, who shared a printer and a KVM. The cable count was 26. > Up here also have what seems like should be an unnecessary extension > cord as it plugs in at one outlet and ends by the other one. And yes, > stuff is plugged into the second outlet and other stuff to the extension > cord, and yes, those items could be plugged into the second outlet. I have that situation because this house has only one outlet with a good ground. So ALL the computer-anything comes off that outlet. Along with the microwave. They don't seem to mind sharing. > Nope, they're on the same circuit, so same breaker. > > Reasoning is the UPSs' filtering interfere with the X10 controller: > severely attenuates the signal so the two have to be separated. "Oddly" > the ten feet or so between outlets is sufficient. (There are 120 KHz > filters but didn't work for that; they do work in other parts of the > house.) Yeah, sometimes there's quirky stuff like that. I had a bizarre tangle in my first Lancaster house due to funky issues with phone jacks vs outlets. After much trial and error and a lot of daisy-chaining, finally got it to all work and never dared touch it again. .... 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